Pubdate: Sun, 21 Sep 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Wesley Robinson
Page: C1
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/naloxone

THE DRUG THAT TURNED A HEROIN USER'S LIFE AROUND

MD. Woman Says Officer Saved Her With Overdose Antidote

Danielle Hall injected a quarter of her normal heroin dose the 
afternoon of June 29, but that day's particularly potent batch was 
strong enough to shut her body down.

She was slumped in her car when an Annapolis police officer found 
her, her breathing shallow and her lips blue. Suspecting she had 
overdosed, the officer sprayed naloxone into her nose.

Hall, a 30-year-old mother of two from the Annapolis area, said the 
officer saved her that day.

"I remember waking up on hot pavement to two cops standing over me," 
Hall said. "I was just a hysterical mess."

"I couldn't believe I was still alive," she said.

Annapolis is one of the first police departments in the Washington 
area to issue its officers naloxone, a drug that counters the effects 
of heroin and other opiates. It is one tactic in a broad effort to 
combat a recent nationwide increase in deaths connected to heroin.

Montgomery County police said they plan to equip their officers with 
naloxone and are working to develop policies about its use. And 
Prince William County police said they are weighing whether to have 
officers there carry the antidote. Nationwide, more than 100 police 
jurisdictions have similar programs in place, many of them in the Northeast.

Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop said his department is using 
Narcan - the brand name of the naloxone his officers carry-to help 
save lives, but also looks at the overdoses to track who is selling 
the potentially lethal drug.

Pristoop said his department has been able to cripple several drug 
rings through arrests and is also working with courts to help figure 
out ways to treat addicts, rather than send them to jail. He believes 
the department has stopped two potentially lethal overdoses.

Heroin use has surged across the country. Maryland reported 464 
heroin-related deaths in 2013, nearly double the 238 reported in 
2010. And Virginia reported 213 fatal overdoses last year.

"It's affecting everyone," Pristoop said. "It's a simple reality, 
crossing culture and community. The day of arresting your way to 
solving the problem is gone."

Opioid overdoses cause breathing to slow, and victims tend to lose 
consciousness. Naloxone, which is easily administered and has no 
known serious side effects, counteracts those effects and allows 
normal respiration to resume.

In many places, emergency medical responders have been carrying 
naloxone for many years. Fairfax County police said they determined 
that training and other expenses would not make sense since emergency 
medical workers get to scenes as quickly as police officers. A D.C. 
police spokesman said the department has no plans to carry naloxone.

Hall said she started smoking marijuana at 18 and has tried numerous 
drugs since then. Following a path similar to many other heroin 
addicts, she began using opiates in the form of oxycodone, a 
prescription painkiller, but moved to heroin because it was cheap and 
easy to get.

She said she overdosed on heroin for the first time in November 2009, 
while she was in someone's car. She was dropped off at the hospital 
and she remembered waking up and thinking, "Where's my drugs?"

Hall said she had been to eight treatment programs but always fell 
back into using. Her mother and stepfather have stood by her, 
spending more than $100,000 on private rehabilitation. They have a 
different last name than Hall and asked to remain anonymous to 
protect Hall's young daughters from retaliation from drug dealers.

"You don't give up your child; I don't care what anyone says," Hall's 
mother said. "Lots of us make mistakes. People just don't know about ours."

By June, Hall said, she was spending between $60 and $240 a day on 
heroin. "I worked to get high and got high to work," she said. "It's 
a vicious cycle. . . . You become physically addicted, then there's 
no more high and you just maintain."

On June 29, Cpl. Justin Klinedinst, a day-shift patrol supervisor 
with Annapolis police, heard a call about 3 p.m. about a person 
passed out in a parked car.

On his way out of the station, he turned around to pick up the Narcan 
kit. Just a few weeks earlier he went through a 30minute training 
session that taught him how to identify symptoms of an overdose and 
how to use the nasal spray.

"Based on the fact that the car was parked in the middle of the road, 
the red flags went up," Klinedinst said. "It was more than somebody 
asleep at the wheel."

When he arrived at the scene along with another officer, Klinedinst 
pulled Hall out of the car, laid her on the ground and administered 
the Narcan. Within two minutes, he said, Hall began to regain consciousness.

On the way to a local hospital, Hall was charged with possession of 
paraphernalia. She is due back in court in December for the fineable 
offense. She thinks she got off easy, considering she could have died.

Since then, she said, she has been clean, and she's taking steps to 
stay that way. She is entering a 12-step program, a treatment plan 
that includes intensive outpatient therapeutic and educational 
treatment, getting shots to help suppress the addiction and living in 
a recovery home, Serenity Sistas, run by Angel Traynor.

Traynor, 50, was a high-functioning addict for 25 years and knows 
what to spot in someone who isn't serious about recovery. She said 
she doesn't see that in Hall.

Hall's family isn't paying for rehab this time, but they are being 
supportive and taking care of her two daughters. Her mother thinks 
she will succeed and said it's the first time she has felt that way.

"I haven't seen my daughter happy in many years," Hall's mother said. 
"Something is working."

Hall said she prays daily that she doesn't fall back into addiction. 
She has a job working as a boat detailer, a strong support system, 
and, as of Friday, she has been clean for 78 days.

"I go to bed excited to wake up tomorrow," Hall said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom